The Tamarack Murders by Patrick F. McManus Page A

Monday morning?”
    â€œYeah, we’ll still have it, Sheriff. I’ll see what I can find and get back to you. If we don’t have it here at the station, I’ll have it at home. I record all my weather casts so I can evaluate my performance later. I just get better and better, Sheriff.”
    â€œThat certainly has been my impression, Wendy.”
    â€œThanks, Sheriff. I’ll get back to you as soon as I find out. That’s Chimney Rock Mountain between six and ten a.m. Monday, right?”
    â€œYou got it, Wendy.” He hung up.
    Lurch stuck his head in the door. “I got five sets of prints off that mess in the blue dishpan. One set is yours, one is Shank’s, and three others belong to guys who have all done time for robbery.”
    â€œGreat! I thought so!” He took out his pocket notebook and opened it to the pages the waiter had pressed his finger prints on. He handed the open notebook to the Unit. “You can eliminate this guy. He’s the waiter. The other two sets belong to two of our bank robbers, if my guess is correct.”
    â€œGreat, boss!”
    â€œI’m pleased you appreciate my effort, Lurch. Anything going on here besides our murder and bank robbery?”
    â€œNot much. Oh, one of the deputies arrested Petey again.”
    â€œPetey! I can’t believe it! What this time?”
    â€œAnother chain saw.”
    â€œA chain saw! Petey doesn’t even know how to run a chain saw! Why does he keep stealing them?”
    Lurch shook his head. “I don’t know. I guess because they’re not nailed down. Maybe he figures he can sell it to someone. Luther Hawkins called up and said somebody stole a chain saw out of his garage. Petey lives a couple blocks away. The deputies picked up Hawkins, drove over to Petey’s house and found the chain saw on his back porch. So they hauled Petey to jail.”
    Tully sighed. “I wish they would stop doing that. I’d better go down and talk to him. Petey’s probably starting to think of jail as his home away from home.”
    Lulu, the jail matron, was sitting at her desk when Tully walked in.
    â€œCome to see the vermin, Bo?”
    â€œOne in particular. Petey!”
    â€œOh, dear. When Petey’s out for more than a week, I start to worry about him.”
    â€œYeah, well, I worry about him, too, Lulu. Don’t they have special places for people like Petey?”
    â€œYeah, they do. They call it jail. If it’s not tied down, Petey takes it home with him. I guess this time he walked into a garage and made off with a chain saw. That’s getting pretty close to burglary, Bo. Old Judge Patterson might even send him away.”
    â€œPatterson is senile enough, he might do just that!”
    â€œDon’t knock old Patterson, Bo. He gives you just about anything you ask for.”
    â€œYes, he does, but I don’t want to risk sending Petey up before him again. Go bring the criminal out here, Lulu.”
    â€œYou going to resort to the Blight way again, Sheriff?”
    â€œAfraid so. Destroy all the paperwork you have, and go up and make sure Daisy takes care of any in the office. I’ll have a word with the deputies and Luther Hawkins.”
    Lulu shook her head. “Hawkins will be tough.”
    â€œI’ll handle Hawkins.”
    As Tully drove Petey back to his house, he warned the little man, “You steal one more thing, Petey, I’m not saving you. This is the last time.”
    â€œBut, Bo, it was only a chain saw. I couldn’t even get it started. Luther probably couldn’t start it either. You shouldn’t arrest a person for taking a piece of junk.”
    â€œPetey, if the piece of junk is in a person’s garage, it’s his personal junk. You take it, you’re stealing. Given your record, you could go to jail for a long, long time. Maybe even to prison. For a stupid chain saw that doesn’t even run! One more time